Back in the Atmosphere
by Sunbird Riding Shotgun
Summary: After six months Sophie comes back a changed woman and things are better than ever but there is one question no one can bring themselves to ask her. N/S.


**Notes:** Written after I listened to "Drops of Jupiter" about eighteen times. Inspired by said song. Also this breaks pattern for me somewhat as this is a strictly Nate/Sophie peice and only briefly mentions my boy Eliot.

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**Back in the Atmosphere**

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It was a rainy spring morning, right after the first thaw, at the tag end of six months, when Nate opened his apartment door to find Sophie standing there. He stepped back in shock and she let herself in, shaking her head, still trying to dislodge the rain from her hair.

A few drops of ice cold water hit Nate's cheek, reviving him from his shock in time for him to hustle forward, helping her out of her drenched coat. He noticed her clothes were soaking wet and he offered her a change of clothes and some coffee.

Later he wouldn't even remember what she said in response. She said it with a laugh, a light musical sound he'd never quite heard before. It was her laugh. Whoever she was now, whoever she'd found, that was her laugh.

It was still echoing in his ears twenty minutes later when she was in dry clothes nursing a cup of coffee and Nate sat down. He'd finished calling the others to let them know Sophie was back. They'd be by before long, they were all excited to see her again.

But for the moment it was just the two of them.

"Tell me." Nate said softly. "How have you been?" _What's happened these past few months. Are you back for good? Did you find what you were looking for?_

Sophie hunched over her coffee, a small sweet smile on her face as she began to tell him the story of her past few months. Of her first true success as an actress in the spotlight being applauded as a star, as a bright shinning sun. She told of her expeditions through Europe, finally seeing the sights to see them rather than as a thief looking for her next score. She was still telling her story when the others arrived and her words faltered off as the team was reunited.

She started from the beginning for their sakes, answering the questions they each asked save the one none of them spoke.

**oOo**

Within a few days things returned to almost normal. Sophie threw herself into their work with renewed vigor, her grifts even more flawless than before. The team, all too happy to have her back, went back to the effective crew they hadn't been since she left. They felt whole again.

But even out of work Sophie found ways to reconnect. She and Parker stole something together and she went back to helping Parker learn to act. She shanghaied Hardison into going with the two of them to a classical concert. Nate didn't have to ask her why she looked so pleased later despite the fact he knew both Parker and Hardison had ditched at intermission. She'd gotten to enjoy Motzart and at the same time sent Parker and Hardison off on their first date.

She also started to spend time with Eliot. At first Nate half wondered if maybe her time away had caused her to realize some secret desire to be with Eliot instead but…

Then he walked in on the two of them together, not in the romantic sense.

Sophie was practicing Tae Bo, Eliot his Kattas, the two of them finding a simple activity they could do in each other's presence. A way to share the silence. The relaxed expression on Sophie's face didn't surprise him half as much as the calm one on Eliot's. He'd been on edge since she'd left. Nate had understood that Eliot viewed it as his job to protect them and wouldn't be relaxed until Sophie was back where he could keep an eye on her.

But apparently Sophie had known that to, and she was finding ways to help soothe away the anxiety her absence had caused for Eliot.

Nate had left them be without a word.

She didn't ask him to come do anything with her. If Nate was honest with himself he spent less time with her now than they had before she'd left.

But Nate tried to avoid being honest with himself about Sophie. He always had.

And if he was honest the painful truth from what her behavior indicated came out. Now that she'd been gone and back she just wasn't interested in him anymore.

They ate as a team more often once Sophie was back. They'd go out to dinner or meet in Nate's apartment. They'd sit around the kitchen table while Eliot cooked, occasionally delegating a task to Parker (though normally nothing that made use of forks or potato peelers, at least not after that incident).

They talked about a lot of stuff, not stay strickly related to work anymore. They told stories from their pasts, and from the months Sophie had been gone.

In turn she told them stories of her own. Stories of a grift she'd pulled in the Russian Ballet to help a dancer be swept off her feet by her lover and finally get a happy ending. Stories of Museums and old friends and bars with funny names and new accents she'd picked up and she'd keep talking, the whole team wrapped up in her words and swept into it by how much she cared about what had happened.

It wouldn't be until after she stopped to drink or some noise broke the spell that anyone of them wondered or thought to ask a question they were no longer sure they wanted answered.

They never spoke it aloud though.

**oOo**

Nate was surprised when Sophie asked her to meet him for Coffie a month after she got back.

He went out, dreading the worst, certain that this was when she was going to tell him there would never be a them, feeling like he needed a drink.

He didn't expect her first words, even as he sat down, to be "I never told you why I came back." When Nate didn't say anything she continued. "I was in a little inn in Tuscany. There was an American family staying there one night. I was sitting in the common room, trying to figure out where to go next when their two children who were sitting over in the corner sharing an ipod started to try to sing along to a song they were listening to." She made a little face. "Mostly they were mumbling along with it, they didn't seem to know it well but what caught my attention was when they got to the one part they did know they raised their voices a bit." She closed her eyes and recited. "Can you imagine no love, pride, deep fried chicken, your best friends always sticking up for you. Even when I know your wrong. Can you imagine for first dance, freeze dried romace, five hour phone conversations, the best Soy late you ever had and me."

Nate wasn't sure what she meant by that. Before he could ask though the waitress arrived with Sophie's drink. "Soy late?" She asked before Sophie waved a few fingers to indicate it was hers. The waitress put the other coffee in front of Nate and left.

Sophie took a sip of her drink and smiled over it at Nate, everything they'd said and should have said in that little quirck of her lips when she put the drink down and said. "I couldn't. That was all I had left to find and I knew where it was. So I came home."

The next night when the team met in Nate's apartment for dinner Sophie sat closer to Nate than usual. She spun her stories as always, sweeping the team away briefly, before stopping short, the impact like a shooting star when her next words were. "That was the first time I admitted to myself how much I missed you all."


End file.
